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Unknown World
Scientists use a gigantic drilling machine for an expedition to the center of the earth. User ReviewsNot Bad Despite the Cheese Factor29 July 2011 | by dougdoepke (Claremont,USA) – See all my reviewsCheapjack Lippert Pictures had an unexpected success with Rocketship XM (1950). I expect this little slice of sci-fi was intended as a follow-up (check out the similar opening scenes). However, instead of burrowing into outer space in a rocketship, these adventurers burrow into inner earth in what looks like a fat submarine with a drill for a nose. They're playing mole because staying on top like everyone else looks like sure death thanks to nuclear weapons. So six hardy Adams and one Eve set out in their big drill to found a new world and refuge for humanity. Naturally, things don't go entirely as expected, otherwise there'd be no movie. And, of course, not all seven survive. Actually, the special effects aren't bad considering the challenges of a fantastic inner earth. Then too, I'm surprised Lippert popped for location shooting all the way to New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns. However, it's also a no-name cast that unfortunately performs like one, except for Killian and Nash who manage a few sparks of life. All in all, it's an interestingly offbeat slice of 50's sci-fi despite the big cheese factor. Director: Terry O. Morse (as Terrell O. Morse)Writer: Millard Kaufman (original screenplay) Stars: Bruce Kellogg, Otto Waldis, Jim Bannon | See full cast and crew » Storyline Dr. Jerimiah Morley becomes convinced that the world is headed to an inevitable worldwide nuclear war. He organizes an expedition made up of a team of expert scientists and an atomic-powered rock-boring vehicle called a "cyclotram" to find a subterranean environment where holocaust survivors could live indefinitely. When funding falls through, independently rich adventurer Wright Thompson underwrites the project under the condition that he be allowed to go. As the group goes deeper beneath the Earth's crust, personalities clash, tempers flare, and the dangerous journey claims the lives of several expedition members. When they come upon an enormous underground expanse with its own ocean and phosphorescent light, it appears that their goal has been achieved. Unknown World is a 1951 independent, science fiction, adventure film, directed by Terry O. Morse and starring Bruce Kellogg, Marilyn Nash, Jim Bannon and Otto Waldis. Although it may have been inspired by Jules Verne's novel Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), the film was not based on the novel, nor "At the Earth's Core" by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which it just as much resembles . The film was also known as Night Without Stars and To the Center of the Earth .It might have inspired the creation of the DC Comic Cave Carson. =Plot = Dr. Jeremiah Morley (Victor Kilian) is concerned about an imminent nuclear war. He organizes an expedition of scientists and has them use an atomic-powered machine, capable of drilling through earth and stone, known as the Cyclotram, to find an underground environment where people could escape from nuclear obliteration. The expedition, consisting of Jim Bannon, Marilyn Nash, Otto Waldis, Tom Handley and Dick Cogan begins, after government funding has fallen through and they are bailed out at the last minute with private financing from a newspaper heir Bruce Kellogg, who insists on going with them as a lark. Romantic rivalry develops between Bannon and Kellogg for Nash, and two lives are lost to perils of the expedition, but in the end, the scientists accomplish their goal and find an enormous expanse with plentiful air, its own ocean and phosphorus light. However, the lab rabbits they have brought with them give birth to dead rabbits. Ms Nash discovers through an autopsy that the underground world has rendered the rabbits, and hence any other life form sterile. Dr Morley is depressed by the news and when an underground volcano erupts he doesn't enter the cyclotram and perishes. The survivors enter the underground sea and find themselves rising up to the surface of the upper world in the ocean, fortunately near a tropical island. Many of the plot elements seem to have been reused in The Core . =Cast = * Victor Kilian as Dr. Jeremiah Morley* Marilyn Nash as Joan Lindsey* Bruce Kellogg as Wright Thompson* Otto Waldis as Dr. Max A. Bauer* Tom Handley as Dr. James Paxton* Dick Cogan as Dr. George Coleman* Jim Bannon as Andy * =Locations = *Parts of Unknown World were filmed in Carlsbad Caverns, and at Bronson Caves, Nichols Canyon, and Pismo Beach. * Trivia Although Victor Kilian, as Dr. Morley, is clearly the star of the film, he received no screen credit because he was blacklisted shortly after completing the movie, a victim of the "Red Scare" hysteria sweeping the country at the time, stoked by rabid right-wing Sen. Joseph McCarthy. This was perhaps the only instance in Hollywood history where the leading actor in a film was deliberately not listed in its cast while everyone else was.This project was actually put together by two special effects men, Jack Rabin and Irving Block, who are listed as producers.IThere seems to be some inspiration for this film taken from Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Both feature an underground sea, in both the entrance to the Earth is close to the top of the Earth (Iceland in Verne's novel and Alaska in this film) and the escape from underground is unexpected and amazingly rapid.I Both the mountains mentioned, Mt. Lefat and Mt. Neleh, are fictional. Factual errors The "science" regarding the interior of the earth is wrong, and was known to be wrong at the time the movie was made. It does not get cooler the deeper one goes into the earth. A few feet below the surface the ground temperature is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Going deeper from that depth the temperature goes up at a rate of approximately 1 degree Fahrenheit per 70 feet. Their ship called the "cyclotram" was supposed to be under 2500 miles of water. That is impossible because the pressure increases 165 time per mile one goes under water. That would mean about 6 million pounds per square inch. No hull could stand anywhere near that pressure. External links = * * * * * Decker, Nathan. Million Monkey Theater. Unknown World A detailed description. * * Category:1951 films Category:American science fiction films Category:1950s science fiction films Category:American disaster films Category:English-language films Category:Cold War films Category:Films directed by Terry O. Morse Category:Submarines Category:Science fiction themes Category:Fantasy adventure films Category:Nuclear weapons